Financial pros at Las Vegas conference hear outlook is cloudy, chance of sun

The 2017 weather forecast for financial markets and regulation is cloudy with a good chance of sunshine.

That was the message delivered Monday by a panel of industry professionals examining the impact of Donald Trump’s election at the annual Structured Finance Investment Group conference at Aria in Las Vegas.

”I think there is a lot of optimism out there from a legislative position and a regulatory standpoint, but it is mixed with a little bit of cloudiness about how all this is going to transpire,” said Joshua Wilsunsen, an executive director at Morgan Stanley. ”On the regulatory side, you see the potential for a sea change.”

President Donald Trump earlier this month signed an order directing the Treasury Department to review financial regulation, including the Dodd-Frank Act passed in response to the Great Recession.

New Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will file a report within 120 days on possible regulatory changes or legislative recommendations. While Republicans control the White House and Congress, Wilsunsen said there will still be some ”challenges” in getting legislation passed.

Ed Hill, senior vice president at Bank of America, cautioned the audience that it takes time to replace the heads of regulatory agencies and it could be a year before the markets see any result, he said.

”Yes, we think that regulatory change is coming, but Washington doesn’t move very quickly and I don’t think we can see a lot of these changes until the end of the year or later,” Hill said.

While attendees shared the panel’s optimism on markets and financial regulation, they were highly disappointed with Trump’s first 38 days in office.

Asked to rate Trump’s performance during his first 38 days in office, 75 percent of respondents gave him a C grade or lower. Asked to rate Trump’s financial policies, 84 percent gave him a grade of C or higher.

Attendees showed their concern over Trump’s nonfinancial policies, especially his immigration initiatives, during the question and answer session.

One attendee stood up to say he was concerned that Trump was making it more politically correct to attack immigrants and minorities.

”As a U.S. citizen, I was scared going to the airport on Saturday,” said another attendee during the question and answer session.

More than 6,700 individuals, including bankers, lawyers, accountants, investors and financial technology professionals are attending the conference which runs through Wednesday and is dedicated to structured finance products such as mortgage-backed securities.

Contact Todd Prince at tprince@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0386. Follow @toddprincetv on Twitter.